North Carolina Research Campus

A Florida developer hopes to lure millennials to downtown Kannapolis within a few years by building a hotel, apartments, shops and restaurants. It's the first step in the city's plan to redevelop 50 acres it bought last year.

The City of Kannapolis is searching for a developer for the first in a planned series of projects that officials hope will transform 50 acres in the city’s old downtown. The City Council gave its go-ahead Monday night.

The billionaire owner of Dole Foods will pour yet more millions of dollars into the Kannapolis research center he founded six years ago. David Murdock announced Tuesday an endowment of $15 million a year, in perpetuity, to his self-named institute. He hopes it will reignite his vision of a hub for life-changing food research.

It was a dark and uncertain time for Kannapolis ten years ago when the historic Pillowtex plant shut down. Since then, the town has seen much change, both physically and economically. The economic downturn a few years ago put a delay in the metamorphosis that Kannapolis was in the process of in the form of the North Carolina Research Campus, but these days people in the town can see that change coming to fruition. But the change is more than just physical. Groundbreaking contributions for bioinformatics, human health and nutrition are happening at the campus, and we'll be joined by several of the players who are responsible for the research that's helping to make Kannapolis' new identity one of research and knowledge, when Charlotte Talks.

The Kannapolis research campus founded by Dole Foods magnate David Murdock has announced its first new corporate tenant in two years. But it's not the kind of company you'd expect for a place focused on health and food science.